Step-By-Step Guide To Making Product Catalogues

Step-By-Step Guide To Making Product Catalogues

Catalogues are one of the oldest marketing tools yet relevant today by all means. 

Besides creating brand awareness and displaying a list of products, catalogues are proof of the authenticity of a brand. 

According to the survey, product catalogues have a more substantial influence on purchase decisions than websites or TV ads – 84% of people surveyed have purchased an item after seeing it in a catalogue.

Although paper catalogues are the norm; however increasing digitalisation mandates a soft copy of the catalogue to make it available to those sitting 1000s of kilometres away. 

This simple leaflet or a pdf has the power to change the brand value, and thus, ROI.

Here’s a step-by-step guide to making compelling product catalogues.

Perceive your viewers 

Every brand has a peculiar following, and that dictates the outlook and core features of the catalogue. 

A furniture company’s catalogue and apparel business’s catalogue vary in terms of aesthetics, modes of presentation, age group of audience, and content.

To dig deep in this process, ask a few questions to sharpen the purpose of making a product catalogue. 

How did you want your catalogue to be interpreted by the audience? As a means of a lead for sales or as a word of rebranding your existence in the market?

How will the paper catalogue be offered to the audience? What will be the mode of distribution of the digital catalogue? 

Is it going to be on social media or only on a sophisticated website? Who is your target audience? Is it the teen or the adult group?

By answering these questions, you reduce the chances of artefacts, enhance its SEO strategy, scripting style, and visual imagery.  

Organise the components 

The three constituents of a catalogue are product details, its images, and the final catalogue layout.

To begin with, collect particulars of all the products that are a part of the catalogue. 

Note down certain specifications such as identification name, genre, properties, Stock-keeping-unit codes, barcodes, and batch numbers.

To save time, it’s advisable to gather all the information above from business databases, ERP systems, XML, or SQL files. Turn to previous product catalogues for better referencing.

Furthermore, search for high-quality images of the product in the graphic collection of the brand. Never let the bad images dampen the quality of a catalogue.

Lastly, standardise a catalogue layout—work on the front cover, followed by inaugural speeches by CEOs. 

Next in the row is an index, brief product design, and lastly, the epilogue with customer reviews. 

Be attentive to add the company’s logo and unique symbols. 

Adjust the page’s headers, content titles, page separator, fillers, and placement of ads, if any. 

None of them should interrupt the attention of the reader.

Utilise the technology 

Leverage the benefit of automation to achieve quick results. 

Deploy some good Content Management Software (CMS) to ease the catalogue designing process as per the brand’s quality bars.

Product Information Management (PIM) is an innovative tool that lets the administrators improvise the content, increase its astuteness, and instil perfection in the catalogue.

Besides these, utilise the creative design tools to create eye-appealing infographics while placing content aesthetically. Plugins with CMS or PIM aids data transfer.

After scrutinising the nuts and bolts of a catalogue, it is necessary to optimise the content of the catalogue as per the publishing methods. 

Try maintaining a homogeneous theme of the catalogue to make it more impressive.

Create the exit routes 

Creating a catalogue demands immediate dispersal to the portals of sale, be it physically or digitally. 

Consult different eCommerce platforms that sell products of your category and print media to hint people about your brand’s existence. 

Preview all the details of the product catalogues before going live.